


Looking the Other Way

by hauntedlittledoll



Series: Shadow Effects [5]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), Batman: Streets of Gotham
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 07:31:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/976129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hauntedlittledoll/pseuds/hauntedlittledoll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Disaster strikes and Colin must divert suspicion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Looking the Other Way

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from J. M. Barrie's "Peter Pan."
> 
> Written for the Anonymous Prompt: "Damian unknowingly using his powers when asleep or unconscious."

"Robin?"  Colin leaned over the edge, hastily tugging the over-sized pants more securely over his hips.  The edge was crumbling away, and the last thing they needed was for Abuse to bring the place down around them.  "Robin!"

There was no response.

Colin couldn’t even see his friend in the pitch black of the pit.  The tunnel was reasonably well-lit now that Damian had taken all the shadows over the edge with him, but from the edge down it was too dark to make out even the brightly-coloured Robin suit.

Even unconscious, the other boy had to be difficult.

Colin couldn’t see to climb down, and he certainly couldn’t carry Damian back up without turning into Abuse.  All Colin had to work with was an unconscious villain and the spare comlink that Damian had entrusted him with.

Damian would never forgive him for bringing in the Bats.

Colin stared down at the floor where his own shadow should fall.  He’d gotten used to being shadowless on patrols with Robin, but the Batman probably wouldn’t be as forgiving of the _Peter Pan_ effect as Colin.  There were rules in Gotham.

Colin stared down into the darkness again, willing the shadows to move just a little—but Colin wasn’t Damian, and the shadows stayed where they were, stubbornly protecting the littlest vigilante.

_Damian had to be alive, or the shadows would have gone back to normal.  Right?_

"I’m calling for help if you don’t answer me!" Colin yelled down the shaft, hopefully.  The threat didn’t work.  Not so much as an exagerated tt reached the redhead.

They weren’t on the usual Bat-frequencies, because Damian wasn’t supposed to be down here.  The latest quake had revealed some of the old Gotham, long-buried beneath the current city, and Damian’s brother had banned the ten year old vigilante from the tunnels.

Colin could only go frequency-by-frequency and hope for the best.  He delivered a simple message and moved on until he actually caught a bit of noise that he recognized.  Damian was teaching him the police codes, and he knew that sequence.  He’d stumbled onto the police— _which, granted, were not the bats, but still!_

"Robin needs help," he burst out desperately, temporarily silencing the line.  "Please," he remembered the manners that the nuns taught him.  "Please, Robin’s hurt and I can’t get him out."

"Repeat that."

"Robin’s down!" Colin shouted, irrationally angry with adults and procedure all of a sudden.  "He chased somebody down into the tunnels under the city, and he fell!  I need a Bat!"

There’s a scuffle on the other end, and a female voice took over—one that Colin thankfully recognized.  “Batgirl’s on the way … B, are you getting this?”

"The commissioner got my attention," the gravelly tones of Batman acknowledged.  Colin can’t tell over the line if it’s Damian’s Batman or the big Batman.  "Robin’s tracker puts him under the seam—which entrance did you use?"

That was a question aimed at Colin.

"There’s a cave behind the Catholic school by the park on Memorial," Colin explained.  "We followed the tunnel half a mile, and there’s a big drop-off.  I can’t see to the bottom of it."

"Too small for you, B," Batgirl responded tersely.  "Go in off the subway entrance on Kingsview.  We’ll meet you inside."

Colin immediately started jogging in the direction of the entrance, working out the cover story as he went.  He could do this, he could be organized and prepared like Robin.  Cool and collected like Batman.

And at the first sight of blonde hair, Colin couldn’t help blurting out:  “Magic!”

* * *

Awareness trickled in slowly which was always a warning sign.  He could hear Colin chattering away above him—about _Harry Potter_ of all things—and someone much closer who was grunting an occasional response as they moved towards the redhead’s voice.

At first, Damian couldn’t find it in himself to move.  There was just that dull certainty that came with the stages of awareness; moving would hurt.

Then his thought process realigned correctly, and Damian stiffened which was just as painful as he expected, but not even pain could obscure two distinct changes since he’d last been conscious.

Damian had come down to investigate the ruined sections of city from the quake with Abuse.  Not Colin.  And there had been no third party.

Damian twisted automatically, but the figure promptly compensated for that.  Unfortunately, doing so required her to let go of whatever she was climbing and slide down a few feet to the last ledge.  The jarring sensation startled a gurgled gasp from Damian that the younger vigilante could only half-swallow back.

"It’s Batgirl, kid," she soothed hastily, running a hand over the back of his aching head.  "You’re fine.  You scared your friend and took a couple years off my lifespan, but you’re fine, Robin."

_Fine hurt like hell._

He made an aggrieved noise in the back of his throat, but the air only whistled through his teeth when he tried for his customary _tt_ of disapproval.

"I know," Brown sighed, reaching up once more.  "B’s on his way."

Damian was wrapped comfortably around her torso while she climbed.  The blonde had clipped their belts together and zip-tied his wrists into a loop around her neck to ensure that she wouldn’t drop him.  Damian appreciated the measures, even as he dug his fingers into the material of her cape for additional security.

"I know," the blonde repeated, gritting the words out through her teeth as she searched blindly for the next hand-hold, "but what else can you expect when you fall down a bottomless pit, huh?"

_Don’t be ridiculous, Batgirl.  A bottomless pit is both an oxymoron and a physical impossibility.  Tt._

"No such thing," he ground out instead, hooking his chin over her armored shoulder for further stability.

"Robin!" Colin shouted down.  His voice echoed in the dark.

Damian frowned.  It was black as pitch down here; how was Brown even succeeding in a vertical direction without night-vision lenses?

"Light?"

Even the Batgirl uniform should have some form of emergency lighting.  Climbing unstable structures free-hand in the dark was dangerous; Batman certainly wouldn’t approve.

"Fun fact," Brown muttered into his ear as she hauled them up another few inches.  "There’s no light in this pit.  Flashlight, glowsticks, the little blinking lights of all things science-y …" Brown broke off with a swear word that she normally refrained from using.  Damian braced himself for another fall, but Brown’s other holds were good.  They continued.  "Everything works in perfect order up top, but disappears the second it goes over the edge."

"It’s magic!" Colin called down.

"We don’t know that it’s magic," Brown contradicted.

"It is magic," Damian lied bluntly.

It’s not magic.  They’re literally shrouded in shadow—Damian’s doing.  For him, shadows are tangible things.  By cushioning his fall, they likely saved his life, but Damian had gripped them too tightly for physics to reassert themselves when he lost consciousness.  Extraction had become necessary.

He was not going to forgive Colin anytime soon for bringing in the Bats.

Although he appreciated the cover story … ridiculous as it was.


End file.
